August 15, 2012

“Michfest and the women born women intention policy: we were very well organized in showing visible support for the intention of fest. Those of us supporting the intention wore red throughout the festival. I attended a discussion about trans inclusion, which turned out to be mostly a bunch of trans allies and a MTT (Alice). They were all complaining about the “sea of red” which had been displayed at the opening ceremony and how “unsafe” it made them feel and how guilty they all felt for not being as organized with their t-shirts as we were with ours. I expressed that last year several women had been made to feel unsafe by males yalking about their penis in workshops with survivors. I was told there was a difference between feeling unsafe and uncomfortable and that penises do not really make women feel unsafe only uncomfortable.

I pointed out how crazy they were for believing that a t-shirt was more dangerous than a penis. Alice admitted that he had talked about his penis inappropriately but then dismissed his actions, saying that he is always hearing from women who “claim to be triggered” on the rape crisis line that he volunteers on, but that apparently all these women are just being neurotic and exaggerating (words to that effect). It is unfortunate that one of the women he traumatized last year was unable to come back this year because she does not consider the space to be safe after what happened last year.

Alice [Kalafarski] was the man who severely traumatized a survivor of sexual violence [and then publicly mocked her in a now edited but still incredibly despicable blog post- GM] by talking about his penis in a workshop last year about female masturbation and sexual violence post male sexual violence. The survivor had never been to Michfest before and she was a young woman in her early twenties. She was not at fest this year, and may never come again after this experience with Alice. Yet Alice was there. How fucked up is that?

“Alice” : A Man who Hates Females

We walked past him on one of the feminist parades and X and a few others yelled out “Man On The Land” which I later got “told off” about, even though I didn’t say anything lol. Over all a very successful year for us, and I had a woman tell me she had concluded we were right after listening to us, even though she had gone to the workshops on this issue sympathetic to trans inclusion. I do worry about the presence of that Alice at fest and also him on that help line. I am concerned he gets off on women’s sexual trauma. We need to keep up the pressure to keep the policy and to find a way to deal with perpetrators on the land.

This year was excellent in terms of resistance to trans presence at the fest. There were hundreds of women wearing red and a group of women had made about 500 t-shirts with the slogan “Big Up The Female: Power, Power”. The support for women-only space at Michfest was palpable and heart-warming.

Other women had made patches saying, “Respect the Intention, Respect the Healing”. I met tons of women who were in support of the intention and didn’t cop shit from anyone despite being covered in red the entire festival. Quite a few of us women went up to Alice and asked him to leave. I think that we made the men on the land feel incredibly unwelcome and uncomfortable this year. I feel very positive and happy about that. ”

Last Wednesday, 56 year old Paul Ray Witherspoon frightened a female hospital patient while using the women and girl’s restroom at Dallas Parkland Hospital while wearing a bulky ankle tracking device used for high risk parolees. The woman notified the police, who arrived at the scene and questioned the parolee, who offered that he is a serial child sexual predator now on monitored GPS tracking for his parole.

But according to the Texas Attorney General website, Witherspoon was arrested again in 2011 for for a parole violation for sending nude pictures of himself through the Internet.

Witherspoon’s 2011 Arrest

Last Wednesday, when the officer asked Witherspoon, whose driver’s license records him as male, why he was using the female restroom Witherspoon informed the officer that he had recently become transgendered, and was therefore permitted to access private women and girls facilities due to his internal feeling of “gender identity”. The officer cited him for disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor. The woman who reported him to police has not yet released more information about the incident, citing the fact that she is “afraid“.

Paul Ray Witherspoon, calling himself “Paula”, claimed he was at the hospital accompanying his “husband” Billy Lorentz to an appointment. However since Texas resident Witherspoon is legally male as is his partner, and Texas does not recognize same-sex marriage that claim is called into question. Lorentz is listed as Witherspoon’s employer on his TX sex offender record.

The DallasVoice reports that Witherspoon said he offered to show the investigating officer a “carry letter” from his psychiatrist stating that he is transgender, and that the officer declined. A photo of the letter is reprinted here. But as you can see, the letter was written two days AFTER Witherspoon was cited.

TX sex offender registry

Lambda Legal representative Ken Upton claims that pedophilic male serial sex offenders should be allowed to access private women and girls facilties regardless of legal gender status as long as the men are “using the bathroom in a way that is consistent with the gender that they live in day in and day out”. Upton did not qualify what objective measure would record the internal feelings or behaviors of convicted predators or what would indicate that predators “live in a gender” day in and day out.

Lambda Legal’s Upton went on to suggest that males who groom or wear clothing in ways that may be seen as nontraditionally masculine may actually be considered “disruptive” or even qualify as “disorderly conduct” for using male facilities designed for their actual sex :

As a butch lesbian, I find it shocking and inappropriate that an LGBT advocacy group like Lambda Legal suggests that legally male serially convicted child sexual predators should be given free reign to enter private, protected spaces for women and girls on the basis of those male’s subjective claims of feeling an internal “gender identity”. Further, the assertion by Lambda Legal that males who do not adhere to cultural standards of masculinity would be considered “disruptive” in ANY male setting whatsoever is a claim that every gay and lesbian person should find deeply offensive.

Reporter Janet St James at Channel 4 KMOV St. Louis spoke to the female complaintant who called the cops on Witherspoon (she has thus far declined to issue a public statement) and states the woman is ‘still very upset about it”.

JACKSONVILLE BEACH- A 50-year old man was charged with disorderly conduct around 11 a.m. Feb. 17 after a woman caught him looking under her stall in a women’s restroom at Publix at 670 Marsh Landing Parkway.The victim said the man stuck his head under the stall and stared up at her. She said she was scared, and screamed. Then she ran out of the bathroom, screaming “a pervert is in the bathroom, please help me.”

Peeping Tom in Athens?

“He came in casually like he was going to wash his hands, but I couldn’t see the guy because I was in the stall. He turned the water off and slid right down to where he could see what was going on in the stall and then I noticed him. He got up, got the paper towels like he had been washing his hands the whole time and left,” says Lynn.

As you can imagine, she was startled to say the least.”I feel so violated. There was really nothing I could do. I was in the restroom alone with the guy. There was nothing I could do. If I had done something, he could have attacked me or something like that,” says Lynn.

Man balks at plea deal in woman’s NYC bar beating A construction worker accused of beating a woman unconscious in a New York City bar bathroom has abruptly balked at a plea deal he was in the middle of taking. Mbarek Lafrem initially told a Manhattan judge Thursday he wanted to plead guilty to assault and attempted sexual abuse in exchange for a 12-to-18-year prison term. The 31-year-old Lafrem said he lashed out at the woman because she slapped and bit him after he went into a women’s restroom by mistake. But the woman told police he followed her to the bathroom after she rebuffed his efforts to dance with her.

Police Report: Lawrence Township

Police received a report of disorderly conduct in which a truck driver entered the women’s restroom at Sapp. Bros and looked under an occupied stall. A registration was obtained and the investigation continues.

Daphne women’s restroom video spying case set for arraignment

Man Accused Of Exposing Self At Library

Supect Carrying Knives When Arrested, Police Say

Police said James Abbott was seen looking under a bathroom stall in the women’s restroom at the main branch on Vine Street on Monday. The witness said Abbott came out of the stall and exposing himself to her as she left the restroom. Police said Abbott was carrying two “skinning knives” when officers arrested him.

Mass. court tosses 2-day sex offender police check

Maker, who had been arrested four times for open and gross lewdness between 1994 and 2009, was arrested again Tuesday after police say he fondled himself in the ladies’ restroom at the Cheesecake Factory at Boston’s Prudential Center.

Woman attacked in Chuck E. Cheese restroom

A 39-year-old woman was jumped and beaten Wednesday afternoon by a 16-year-old boy lurking in the ladies restroom at a Murrieta Chuck E. Cheese’s, authorities said.

As soon as she walked through the restroom door, a young man burst out of one of stalls and grabbed her by the arms, she said.

He threw her to the ground in the handicapped stall, knocking her head on the toilet, and began to pummel her in the head and upper body, Reynoso said. He climbed on top of her, holding her down, and continued to punch her, she said.

“I was like, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ ” she said, but he just told her to shut up.

“I thought I was going to die.”

She now thinks the teen probably intended to rape the first person to walk into the bathroom.